FLIGHT OVER POLE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 December 1929, Page 5

FLIGHT OVER POLE

BYRD’S GREAT VENTURE WONDERS OF THE SOUTH COMMANDER’S STORY CONTINUED. By Bussell Owen, copyrighted, 1929, by the "New York Times" company and "St. Louis Post and Despatch." All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to "New York Times/' BAY OF WHALES, Dec. 3. “There was not less than 300 miles between us and the Pole, and if the sun remained the sun compass and the wind drift indicator should take us there as straight ais the bee flies,” says Commander Byrd, continuing the story of his flight to the Pole, “we would have to ride the engines all the way. The plateau was so high that if one of the three engines should stop we would have to land on. the snow, which at places was nearly two miles above sea level —an uncertain thing at any time and more uncertain with a load aboard. The engines must keep going. • , • „ ' “1 was saying this to myself when the starboard engine began to sputter. Bemt nosed down and Harold rushed to the gas tank valves and stood looking at the engine and listening to the jarring interruptions the missing cylinders caused in the rhythm. Mac for once hesitated in his mapping work. After winning our hardest struggle was our flight to be ended? No! Near the objective Barnt hurriedly manipulated the altitude control. In the effort to economise on the precious fuel the gasolene had been made too lean. “The motor began to sing again—l say sing, for its roar was music when it was not missing. • A boat flying on a flight of this kind is full of contrasts everything perfect one minute, the next everything is black- All was well lagain. We looked around. Ahead was the apparently limitless plateau glisten'ing in the sunshine. The great Polar plateau at last! It was good to see it after the months we had wondered about it and the hundreds of times we had asked ounselves if we would ever be lucky enough to reach it. To the left were great mountain masses appearing to be high above our level. I would .hesitate to estimate their altotude, but they are very high, since at this place the plateau itself is about 10,000 feet above sea level. Mac’s photos muist tell the story. Beyond this mass were separated peaks of many different shapes running to the south-eastward. NEW MOUNTAIN RANGE. “There was one great isolated peak completely snow-covered and looking like a great inverted white porcelain bowl. Back of us, running east and west along the rim of the plateau, were enormous peaks lifting their heads high into the air. 1 looked over to the right and got one of those kicks that pidls a man away from civilisation, which repays him for his efforts. There was a new mountain range in the distance, running north and south a new bit of land to- add to the map of the world. Mac would shoot it with his camera; we felt that it was worth while bringing him for that alone. “It occurred to me as I looked around at the mountains that they must fringe the whole plateau— Nature’s great dam holding ice and snow there. At present we can only guess what lies beneath that great ice cap and what its depth. It is one of the world’s mysteries. That imaginary point, the South Pole, is in the centre of an unlifted plain hundreds of miles in diameter —a magnificent edifice seemingly built to make more inviolable the tiny spot which we were seeking „ “The plateau seems to range from 7000 to 11,000 feet in altitude. Beyond the new mountain mass we saw a small peak sticking up through a great expanse of snow. A very lonely little black speck it was, and it was hard to realise that it was the top, probably, of a mountain about 9000 feet above sea level. “On we went, flying at a rate of 100 miles an hour towards our goal. Our drift- indicator showed that the wind was from the left, and we had to. head the ’plane a dozen degrees to the left in orcler to fly straight south. It was impossible to tell our exact altitude above the plateau, and, therefore, it) was not as easy to get our actual •ground speed as it would have been over water or ice near the sea level, hut there was a way. With a stopwatch we got the time it took a smoke bomb beneath to traverse the length of a 12-inch wire in the bottom of the ’plane. Turning south we took the time over the same object in the same manner. Then with simple arithmetic we calculated the speed. To do this we were forced to open the two-foot trap door, and the strong wind coming up through it quickly numbed the face. We ohserved it was 10 degrees below zero and getting colder as we approached the Pole. “We found the wind against us, and instead of flying at 100 miles ;am hour over the plateau we were making only 84 or 85 miles. This was ta. disappointment. It would take ns longer to reach the Foie than we had calculated, but we would come back faster. We took a. look back at the mountains and when we saw their great height we realised that w? must be very careful to alllaw for the' wind. Unless we should Teach out pass on the Axel Heiberg Glacier and flv through it down to the barrier we might be trapped by mountains we could 1 not scale. “There were many very important reasons why the wind drift indicator and the sun compass should he used with the greatest care,- and why Bemt ■and Harold should steer carefully. Suppose the clouds slioulld close in .around! th? mountains before our return! That would indeed tra.p us. But it was one of those oh an eels, we had to take. CHARACTER OF SURFACE. “The character of the plateau surface varied greatly from time to time. \Ye saw to the left the foot of a miagnifi- , ~ n,t g.aoier running down from the mountains and showing chaotic masses of crevassed ice shining blue against the white snow. This may have been the Devil’s Ballroom, that dangerous area] which Amundsen traversed. We passed , over groups of haycocks—those small uuled domes of snow which cover bottomless pits. There were wind-form-ed saistrugi, arrow-shaped, which appeared hard and with knife edges and' glistening more in the sun than the other snow surfaces. That area, must have been one. of violent winds. Landing there would have been Tike landing among rocks. “While the mountains were still looming large on the left we attempted to shoot the sun with the sextant to get the altitude and so give us a sun line that would cut our line of flight and at the point of intersection tell us what the nun had to sav abort our progress, but the air was not smooth ■enough. The 525 horse-power engines in the nose of the ’plane, exerting great force to keep us two miles high, seemed to add to the weaving motion. of the ’plane. It was impossible, at this time to keep

the sun and the bubble in the sextant together long opaugh, to get a dependable sight. We hoped things would be favourable later on, but this did not worry us, for our distance wxus so short that we oonildi hardly miss our objective. “Our alltimeter showed us to he keepving about the same atmospheric pressure, and' we were, therefore, not changing our altitude very much. The snow beneath us seemed to be getting further away, so we judged] that the pliarteaui was sloping down with a gentle incline. Back in the tail of the ’plane was a meteorograph, recording the changes in the temperature pressure and the humidity, which, after the flight, would tell the whole story. We would know the exact moment Of the taking off time, and' every subsequent altitude, and the moment of landing at the mountain baise and at Little America. “Beneath ns somewhere was the trail that Amundsen had blazed to the South Pole. The trail was not buried far 'beneath the snow. My admiration for that great explorer increased tremendously when I saw what he had to contend with. In his honour and m honour of Bernt and the other Tv orwogians at Little America and the whalers who with such great generosity have helped us, we carried with_ ns a Norwegian flag. We also carried a French flag; wo have not forgotten the extraordinary hospitality France showered upon the trans-Atlantic fliers nor the friendship demonstrated for America at that time. CONFIDENCE REGAINED. “Half-an-hour pusi> midnight we a tain tried to get our altitude by the sun. The sight was better this time and showed iis to be close to our dead reckoning .position. That was good, but there was still enough movement iu the ’plane to prevent our being certain. There was probably error in it and just how much we could not tell. We felt confidence in our sun compass and drift indicator, and luckily our sight did not change our calculations. "‘The temperature seemed to be falling a® we neared the Pole. The mountains abaft the beam were fading now and clouds win on may nave covered unseen mountains showed on the horizon off the port bow. Harold was piloting and Bernt came aft to tell me that it was not quite so clear ahead and that we might find mist near the Pole. Once or twice we thought we saw snow drifting beneath and an Antarctic storm seemed to be closing in on us, but we thought wo could get hack to the mountains ahead of it. _ It was a great ’plane with great engines, and with reasonable tluck we should beat that storm. “We vvere now so near the Pole that within easy visibility ‘lay Scott’s camp —Scott who with his companions had perished on his way back; that great hero who had shown there are things more important than life; who in failure had won immortal success. In his memory and that of his gallant comrades, and in honour of our cousin and friend, the British Empire, we carried with us a British flag. “There flashed through my mind the fact that someone had attempted to «tart a mild controversy covering the territorial rights of the British Empire and the United States as a result of our discoveries. What a pity there should be such a controversy! This is a peaceful and scientific mission trying to extend the boundaries of the land and the knowledge gained by those heroes who gave their Jives here. If the spirit of this expedition towards those gallant men and the nations they represented could be known and felt it would add its mite towards furthering the good fellowship so vitally important now that our country has joined with other nations in a sincere effort to secure peace tend harmony for the world- “ The Barrier edge was now about four hours back. No wonder the boys thought I was Hying beyond the Pole; the Pole which was only a little more than 300 miles from the Barrier’s edge. The wind had caused us to take longer than we had expected, but at last the big moment had come—that imaginary point, the very bottom of the world, was, according to my reckoning, somewhere 'beneath, and within our view. I handed to Harold the following message to radio to our comrades in America: “My calculations indicate' that we have reached the vicinity of the South Pole. We are flying high for a survey and will soon turn north.” Bernt turned the nose of the ’.plane to the right while I attempted to get the altitude of the sun with the sextant, hut there was far too much movement of the ’.plane for results. We knew exactly what the altitude of the sun should be, since the altitude of the sun centre at any moment at the Pole is equal to the declination of the siin, which at that time was 21 degrees 27 minutes. The sun circles that point without any noticeable change in altitude. MAKING CERTAIN. “We flew on to the right for five or six miles and' then circled and flew to the left an equal distance and followed our original line of flight for five or six miles further. I had wanted to g° 50 miles beyond the Pole instead of half a dozen, hut we had been a long time in reaching It. I saw Harold's and Bernt’s anxious eyes on the gasolene gauges. It would 1 nob be fair to these fellows to go any further. “We turned the nose of the ’plane back towards Little America. When we reached the place at which we had turned to the right wo opened the trap door and dropped the American flag, weighted ivith a stone from Floyd Bennett’s grave. We stood and saluted the spirit of our gallant comrade and our country’s flag; that little silk flag and that small stone tied together at the bottom of the world. “We were about 250 Q feet above the Pole and the temperature had dropped to IQ 'degrees below zero. Visibility was good in most directions, but what was t‘he direction? All directions are north from the Pole. When we passed over the Pole we had changed our time a whole day; now we had changed it back' again. “We still had a job to do. The winds were gathering in force and an a short tim-e we eon Id s-e-o more patches oi drifting &iiou’ beneath ns. We watched the sun compass and the drift indientor like ha ivfcs. We must hit the mountain .pass. On and on we went. Time that seemed long before crawled now. “The' first mountains to the right, which had been clear on the outward journey, were half covered with clouds. Mac photographed them. Apparently a storm had just reached there. Bernt had increased the motors’ revolutions and the great Cyclone engine was doing its stuff. We aimed our course a few degrees to the right so as to reach the Barrier more to the eastward than we had left it to get a better view of Carmen Land and to obtain survey photographs, geographically of great, importance. “Suddenly Bernt gave a shout of joy. A little to* our left was the pass we had come through—only partly cloudcovered—and what we took for the Heiberg Glacier was almost dead ahead. Clouds were beginning to form; we were just in time. We were very thankful that we did not have to waste precious time and gasolene looking for a way through the mountains. “Soon we were sliding down the Heiberg Glacier. It was very rough but

the ’plane was light. In another few minutes Harold brought her down gracefully on the ice-hard sastrugi at our little mountain base. We put aboard 20Q gallons of gasolene, ten gallons of oil and «is gasolene stove lor Larry Gould’s party. “lii an hour wo were ready and Harold lifted the Floyd Bennett easily from the snow and headed for the camp. We looked north over the rolling white plain and it seemed to us] we could see all that we Lad left bell ind—a few more weeks of work, and then home.